Brasil '66 singles

"Scarborough Fair" was played pretty frequently on the MOR station that I listened to. It seemed to me like a solid followup to "Fool On The Hill", but it wasn't all that popular on the bog Top 40 stations, as I recall.

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A good example is KHJ in Los Angeles, which only played three Brasil '66 singles. "The Look of Love" peaked at #2. So did "Fool on the Hill". "Scarborough Fair" only made #10. But beyond the peak number is this story---it took two weeks to move from hitbound to #25. The next week, #10. Then #12, then #24, then gone.

Now, KHJ was a quick on-quick off station in those days. Seven weeks on the chart for a big record was about it. Six was more common. "Hey Jude" set some kind of record for charting for 11 weeks. But four---that's short. And it suggests it might not have really been a #10 or #12 record.

KHJ gave itself a lot of latitude by putting this language at the bottom of its weekly chart: "The listing of records herein is the opinion of KHJ based on its survey of record sales, listener requests and KHJ's judgement of the record's appeal. "

"Scarborough Fair" was played pretty frequently on the MOR station that I listened to. It seemed to me like a solid followup to "Fool On The Hill", but it wasn't all that popular on the bog Top 40 stations, as I recall.

Click to expand...

Back when XM Radio was still around, "Scarborough Fair" was the only Brasil '66 song I ever heard, on the 60s channel.

KHJ gave itself a lot of latitude by putting this language at the bottom of its weekly chart: "The listing of records herein is the opinion of KHJ based on its survey of record sales, listener requests and KHJ's judgement of the record's appeal. "

How could I have forgotten!? -- "Black Magic Woman" is an example of a song done by a then-current popular recording artist (band), and then covered soon after by another big band/act/name/group/artist.

(Again, correct me if I'm wrong -- but my understanding is) the original release of "Black Magic Woman" by Peter Green's Fleetwood Mac was a hit in the U.K. (and maybe Europe), but it was Santana's cover version (adaptation) that got lots of notice and airplay (sales, impact, etc.) in the U.S.

Santana's version got popular in 1970, which means, that it was a cover of a song that had recently been made a hit by another hit-making artist. That's my point here, with this post.
But, as I said, I am not sure how many Americans were familiar with the original by 1970 when they would have heard Santana's version for the first times.

In fact, all of Santana's most-played songs (best-known tracks) were covers of songs that were originally done by others (as singles/45s). But "Evil Ways" and "Oye Como Va" were originally done many years earlier (earlier in the 1960s, I think) -- and even then, the originals probably weren't well-known by the Pop and Rock mainstream and white youth cultures in the U.S. when Santana released their versions of those songs. So, those two particular examples aren't the strongest support for my thesis here.
In fact, to this day, Santana's versions of those three songs -- "Black Magic Woman" , "Evil Ways" and "Oye" are the best-known versions/recordings of those particular songs.

This might serve as a bit of a parallel for the idea I had expressed about Lani having done some adaptation of "Oh Well" -- in a Mose Allison -type style with piano instead of guitar. (It would be the reverse process of what Pete Townsend did with "Young Man Blues." by Mose Alison.)

Fleetwood Mac's "Black Magic Woman" peaked at #37 in the UK (again, 36 other songs did better on its best week), and was not released as a single and did not chart in the US. It was on a Fleetwood Mac compilation released in 1969 in the US called ENGLISH ROSE, which peaked at #184, so it's fair to assume very few people in the US ever heard it before Santana.

As for "Evil Ways", yes Willie Bobo recorded it and released it on the 1967 BOBO MOTION album, but that didn't chart.

Neither did "Oye Como Va", which Tito Puente wrote in 1956, but didn't release until 1962's EL REY BRAVO album, which also didn't chart.

Bottom line---none of those songs were hits by other hit-making artists. Even Fleetwood Mac, which had charted (1969's "Oh Well" peaked at #55 and was their only chart single until "Over My Head" in 1975), had yet to have anything close to a hit in the US before "Black Magic Woman" was released by Santana).